Butterfly GardeningFact sheet Lycaenidae family Two-spotted Line-blue Nacaduba biocellata biocellata Also known as: Double-spotted Line-blue or Blue-spotted Line-blue Abundance in Adelaide area: Common Flight: Throughout the year Wingspan: m 17 mm; f 17 mm Mature larva length: 8 mm This widespread species is seen from time to time in suburban Adelaide. It is attracted to the buds of Wattle trees, its favoured caterpillar food. The Two-spotted Line-blue can be encouraged into your garden by growing local South Australian acacias. Caterpillar food plants: Wattles. The caterpillars eat mature yellow flower buds. Adelaide native species: Any Wattle is In the Adelaide area it can be found during suitable. Some Adelaide Wattle species include summer, flying around its caterpillar food plant, Gold-dust Wattle (Acacia acinacea), Wallowa (A. flowering Wattles. calamifolia), Thorn Wattle (A. continua), Sticky Wattle (A. dodonaeifolia), Ploughshare Wattle The male is an intense violet-blue on the upper (A. gunnii), Umbrella Bush or Sandhill Wattle (A. surface of the wings, while the female is more ligulata), Blackwood (A. melanoxylon), Golden variable. Generally she will have a central blue Wattle (A. pycnantha), Wirilda (A. retinodes), patch on the wings with a broad brown marginal Rock Wattle (A. rupicola), Elegant Wattle (A. area; however, it is not unusual for some to have victoriae ssp. victoriae). reduced blue areas, with the blue area being sometimes reduced to a few, scattered, Other South Australia species: blue scales. Silver Mulga (A. argyrophylla), Grey Mulga (A. brachybotrya), Coastal Umbrella-bush (A. On the underside of the wings, both sexes are cupularis), Mealy Wattle (A. farinosa), Needle similar. The top wing tends to be a soft orange- Wattle (A. rigens), Native Willow (A. salicina), brown and the hind wing a pale brown. Both Hard-leaf Wattle (A. sclerophylla), wings are patterned with transverse areas A. simmonsiana. outlined in deeper brown and white margins. At the base of the hind wing, at the angle between While small, this butterfly is one of those that the outside and lower margin (the tornus) there impresses when seen in magnified photographs. is two small black dots. These black dots have a It is common throughout the state, especially in few bright, shining green scales in their centres, the northern areas. and are surrounded by a bright orange ring. Book ‘Attracting butterflies to your garden’ available now! Visit www.butterflygardening.net.au for details..